Fur­nished fashion

The lat­est ready-to-wear col­lec­tion by Melinda Looi is in­spired by the idea of in­te­rior spa­ces.

NAMED The In­te­ri­ors, Melinda Looi’s new col­lec­tion is de­fined by ease of move­ment and a sense of space. It of­fers a fresh di­rec­tion, while still stay­ing true to her sig­na­ture style.

The de­signs fo­cus on imag­i­na­tive prints. Some of these are taken from Looi’s very own ab­stract art paint­ings – brought to life with the use of cut­ting-edge and in­no­va­tive tech­nol­ogy.

Car­pets played a role in the col­lec­tion too. Their mo­tifs have been de­vel­oped into pat­terns akin to clas­sic scarf prints pro­duced by some of the world’s lead­ing lux­ury houses.

The dif­fer­ent fab­rics played with a mix­ture of silhouettes. By ex­tend­ing pieces of fab­ric from gar­ment flounces or cre­at­ing hand­ker­chief skirts and backs, Looi cre­ated pretty and fem­i­nine pieces.

“This sea­son, fab­rics are a vivid mix of tex­tures, pat­terns and colours,” says the Malaysian de­signer. “Imag­ine a plush chaise longue with a throw ca­su­ally draped over it.”

“I took this to cre­ate the idea of fab­ric em­broi­dery which you can see in our pleated jack­ets where we stitched metal­lic stripes over pleated grey wool suit­ing, as well as in our combo dresses,” she adds.

Other sig­na­ture pieces are looser fit-to-flare A-line de­signs, hid­den slits and full skirts that fall just be­low the knee, as well as a play­ful spin on the corset, which is built-in to some dresses and shirt­dresses.

When asked about the theme and cus­tom­made fur­ni­ture pieces made for her fashion show by fur­ni­ture la­bel Cac­cina, Looi states: “Who knows maybe one day I will have my own fur­ni­ture col­lec­col­lec­tion.”

The In­te­ri­ors tion will be avail­able later this year via on­line pre-or­der. Watch out for more de­tails on In­sta­gram (@Melin­daLooiRTW) and melin­dalooi.c m.